Cycling

A Dutch subsidiary of liquid crystal specialist AlphaMicron is turning to Indiegogo to fund the development of Ctrl One, a pair of glasses mostly targeted to cyclists and runners that can change tint from dark to transparent in a fraction of a second, automatically adapting to surrounding lighting conditions.

Garmin gave hope to many a floundering tech startup's CEO earlier this year when it purchased Ikubu Ltd in the wake of a crowdfunding campaign that came up short. Though the company failed to capture the imagination of the Dragon Innovation crowdfunding community, Garmin liked the cut of Ikubu's jib, so it snapped the company up with a view to bringing its rear-facing bike radar system to market. Now, the electronics giant has unveiled the finished, more polished product dubbed Varia Radar, which also integrates with Garmin's Edge cycle computer.

There's a certain irony to most e-bikes. Their motors and batteries make
them easier to pedal, yet those same components also make them much
heavier than regular bikes – weights of 50 to 60 lb (23 to 27 kg) aren't
uncommon. Additionally, some "bike snobs" think they're kind of
dorky-looking. E-bike enthusiast Troy Rank and his team, however, have
set out to address the weight and appearance issues. His Maxwell EP0
looks almost entirely like a regular steel-framed flat-bar road bike,
and it's claimed to weigh as little as 25 lb (11 kg) depending on the
model.

It's now pretty common for people to use an actioncam to record their
bicycle trips. Some people even wear one, with another mounted somewhere
on their bike. What isn't so common, however, is to see someone cycling
with up to nine cameras going at once. That's just what
Emmy-award winning producer Rich Collier does on a regular basis,
however, in the production of his Roll Play TV quiz show.

A lot of cyclists like to take their bike with them when traveling by
air, or they'll rent one upon reaching their destination. That said,
they may still need a way of transporting it once they get there. Using a
folding bike
or renting a large vehicle are a couple of solutions, but Allen Sports
has now announced another – the AL01, which is billed as being the
world's smallest folding bike rack.

Although suspension forks and rear shocks have certainly revolutionized
the field of mountain biking, many riders still don't know how to set
them up properly. This means that parameters such as preload, rebound
and compression tend to get left at their factory settings, resulting in
sub-optimal performance. That's why Australian startup Dusty Dynamics
has created the ShockWiz – it's an app-assisted device that advises
users on tuning their air-sprung suspension systems.

Tubeless mountain bike tires definitely have their good points, such as
lower weight, less flats and decreased rolling resistance. In order to
seat the things securely on the rim, however, it's often necessary to
use a compressor or a CO2 cartridge to deliver a high-pressure shot of
air. That said, there's now another option, in the form of the Airshot.

While most cyclists like to think that they're pretty good at spotting
road hazards such as potholes and sewer grates, the fact is that no one
can watch the asphalt all the time. Inevitably, things like
smartphone navigation screens, motorists or traffic lights are going to
distract them. That's why Byxee was created. It's a bar-mounted device
that scans the road in front of the bike hundreds of times per second,
alerting the rider to anything that might wreck their wheels or even
cause them to crash.

In what it calls a "world first," Transport for London (TfL) will trial cyclist detection systems at traffic lights in the city with a view to improving cycle-flow. The technology aims to detect the number of cyclists travelling along a route. It then adjusts traffic signal timings to give cyclists more time on green lights.

When cycling at night, it's important not just to be seen from the front
and back but also from the sides. In order to make that happen, bicycle
lighting systems typically either add dedicated side lights or they divert
part of the main headlight beam. The Ding headlight, however, puts out
one beam that shines forward, along with a second one that lights up the
road directly to either side of the bike.